Background
The granddaughter of songwriter and activist Peter McGovern, she was born in Bromborough, Merseyside, the daughter of a British Railways telecoms engineer father and a mother who was a nurse
The granddaughter of songwriter and activist Peter McGovern, she was born in Bromborough, Merseyside, the daughter of a British Railways telecoms engineer father and a mother who was a nurse
She was educated at Brookhurst Primary School, and then Wirral Grammar School for Girls, where she was the Head Girl from 1998-1999. She then studied Philosophy at University College London.
On graduation, she worked as a researcher at the House of Commons, before handling communications for development projects at Network Rail. McGovern was first elected as a councillor for Brunswick Park in the London Borough of Southwark in 2006, later becoming the Deputy Leader of the borough council"s 29-member group of Labour councillors. McGovern made her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 3 June 2010 in a debate on European Affairs.
In accordance with Parliamentary tradition, she spoke in glowing terms of her constituency and praised her predecessor Ben Chapman, whom she described as "very amiable".
She became former Prime Minister Gordon Brown"s parliamentary private secretary in July 2010. On 14 September 2010 she held her first adjournment debate regarding employment prospects for young people in Wirral.
In December 2010 she introduced a private member"s bill before Parliament that would amend the Public Libraries and Museums Acting 1964 to broaden the scope of the general duty of library authorities so as to include a duty to provide related cultural facilities alongside the library service. In March 2011 she visited India as part of an International Development Select Committee delegation.
In the 2013 Labour reshuffle, she was added to the Shadow International Development team
In 2014, she was moved to the shadow Children and Families portfolio. In May 2015 McGovern was appointed as shadow city minister in Labour’s treasury team, but did not stay on the opposition frontbench after the Labour leadership election in September 2015. In October 2015 McGovern was appointed as Chair of Progress, a political organisation associated with the development of New Labour.
In January 2016, McGovern resigned from Labour"s policy review on child poverty and combating inequality, as a protest against her Progress organization being described by shadow Chancellor John McDonnell as having "a hard right agenda".
She commented that she had been "backed into a corner". A Labour Party spokesperson stated "She is resigning from something that doesn"t exist", as the initiative had not been confirmed or launched yet.
Quotations: "She is resigning from something that doesn"t exist".
55th United Kingdom Parliament. 56th United Kingdom Parliament]
In November 2010 she was selected by the PLP to become a member of the International Development Select Committee.